The Government's considering raising phone call entitlements for prisoners, amid a push from a petition and the Ombudsman.

The law says prisoners are entitled to just five minutes on the phone each week.

Former head of the Wellington Howard League for Penal Reform, Christine McCarthy, petitioned Parliament to change the rules - saying current technology would make restrictions easy to enforce. 

"We have increasingly wonderful technology - so you have to remember the context that prisoners have to apply every telephone number that they're going to ring, that has to be approved. And when you have electronic systems, you can know...the way you can monitor stuff, the way you can access and record things is just way ahead."

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The Government's considering raising phone call entitlements for prisoners, amid a push from a petition and the Ombudsman.
The law says prisoners are entitled to just five minutes on the phone each week.
Former head of the Wellington Howard League for Penal Reform, Christine McCarthy, petitioned Parliament to change the rules - saying current technology would make restrictions easy to enforce.&nbsp;
"We have increasingly wonderful technology - so you have to remember the context that prisoners have to apply every telephone number that they're going to ring, that has to be approved. And when you have electronic systems, you can know...the way you can monitor stuff, the way you can access and record things is just way ahead."
LISTEN ABOVE

With a straight down the middle approach, Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB delivers the very latest news and views to New Zealanders as they wrap up their day.

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Christine McCarthy: former head of the Wellington Howard League for Penal Reform on the growing calls for phones for prisoners

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/9c06061b-e7cc-453b-a33f-b402005ef640/transcript